Korea Electric Power Corporation (KEPCO), led by President& CEO Kim Dong-cheol, announced the official opening and commencement of operations at the DSO-MD Jeju Centre on 9 March at KEPCO’s Jeju Headquarters.

The DSO-MD Jeju Centre has been established to support theactivation of distributed energy by providing distributed energy operators participating in the electricity market with key information, such as available bidding capacity. This ensures a more structured approach to power generationwhile facilitating and optimising electricity trading within the distribution network.

Currently, Jeju Island is running a pilot project wheresmall-scale renewable energy resources are aggregated and managed as a singlepower plant.

However, distributed energy operators often face challengesin maintaining their planned electricity generation due to external factorssuch as weather conditions, infrastructure works, and unexpected failures.

The DSO-MD Jeju Centre aims to address these challenges byintegrating control and communication systems with distributed energyoperators. It will pre-verify electricity market bidding plans and providerealistic generation capacity limits, allowing operators to plan their powergeneration more effectively.

Additionally, KEPCO plans to link the DSO-MD Jeju Centrewith LG Energy Solution’s VPP (Virtual Power Plant) platform, ensuring stableparticipation in the electricity market. The centre will also assessalternative investment strategies by reducing peak loads on the Pyo-seon(Seogwipo City) distribution line, providing a cost-effective alternative togrid expansion.

A key initiative in Jeju focuses on the high electricitydemand for tangerine greenhouse heating. By discharging energy storage systems(ESS) during peak night-time hours, the project is expected to alleviate poweroverload and save approximately KRW 1.6 billion in power grid reinforcementcosts.

Jun-ho Lee, KEPCO’s Executive Vice President of Safety &Sales Distribution, stated:

"With the launch of the DSO-MD Jeju Centre, we aim tomaximise the value of distribution network resources while enhancingelectricity supply efficiency and grid utilisation through a regionalflexibility operation system."

Moving forward, KEPCO plans to introduce a"Regional Flexibility Service", which will share savings and benefitsfrom distributed energy utilisation with energy operators. This initiative willenhance power grid quality while contributing to KEPCO’s financialsustainability.